Jul. 10—Carson Benge beat shortstop Easton Elliott’s throw home on a bases-loaded forced out to give the Enid Majors a 5-4 victory over 316 Baseball Ellliott for the Pool A championship of the AABC Connie Mack South Plains Regional Friday at David Allen Memorial Ballpark.
Maddux Mayberry faced the minimum of 15 batters in throwing a one-hitter against Stix Red in a makeup game at NOC Enid’s Failing Field earlier in the day.
The Majors, the No. 4 seed, will face No. 5 seed New Orleans in a 1:30 p.m. elimination game Saturday. The winner will advance to Sunday’s semifinals against the Oklahoma Drillers-Marcucci-316 Baseball Elliott winner at 10 a.m.
The Majors are three wins away from qualifying for the Connie Mack World Series at Farmington, N.M.
“Winning is a lot better than losing,” said Majors coach Kris Webb.
Benge was six of eight with a homer, two doubles and five runs scored on the day.
He led off the seventh with a single and went to third on an error. He was off on the pitch to save a potential double play ball. Elliott made an off-balance play on a grounder by Will Edmunson but Benge beat it by a split second.
“That was a great play by the shortstop,” Webb said. “Benge ran hard. In my opinion, he is the best player in the tournament.”
Benge had a RBI double to highlight a three-run fifth to break a 1-1 tie. 316 Baseball Elliott took advantage of two errors to score three runs to tie the game in the sixth.
Majors reliever Nate Herchock struck out Jake Shope and Haden O’Toole with the bases loaded to stop the bleeding in the sixth and threw a scoreless seventh to get the win on the mound,
“Nate really saved us,” Webb said. “Because of him, we will have a lot of guys available (to pitch) for this weekend.”
Ian Daugherty scored the Majors’ other run in the fourth when Jacob McCool was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Majors starter Nate Bogelski allowed only one run over four innings. 316 Elliott Baseball left 12 runners on base, including the bases loaded in the third.
Mayberry, who will report to Northeastern A&M on Sunday, allowed only a double by Cedric Mitchell in the third. Mitchell was doubled off second. He issued a walk in the fifth but that was wiped out by a double play. Mayberry struck out two,
“I just tried to pitch to contact,” Mayberry said. “I just let them hit it. The defense played great today. My fastball was sinking away and they didn’t get much hard contact.”
“If we go on and win this regional or compete for it on Sunday, it’s because of what Maddux did,” Webb said. “He came in and threw strikes and was a bullpen saver.”
Benge’s three-run homer in the first highlighted a 13-hit attack. Every starter had at least one RBI with Zandt Payne having two. The Majors scored eight runs in the fifth to end the game on the eight-run rule.
Edmunson was three-for-three.
Marucci and 316 Elliott Baseball will play at 10 a.m. with the winner playing the Drillers at 6 p.m.
The Dallas Mustangs face Victus American at 11:15 a.m. with the winner playing No. 2 overall seed MVP Heath at 8:15 p.m.
Sandlot will play UBC Warren at 3:45 p.m.
Semifinal games are set for 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Sunday with the title game set for 3:30 p.m.
Campbell is a former sports writer and current part-time writer for the News & Eagle, enidnews@enidnews.com.
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